Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / How Post-COVID Hospitality Changed Everything: Kim Halloran's Industry Insights

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How Post-COVID Hospitality Changed Everything: Kim Halloran's Industry Insights · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:07
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:10
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:13
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:16
today's guest is Kim Halloran, Managing Partner at The Capital
0:20
Grille. This upscale dining restaurant,
0:22
founded in 1990, is famous for its comfortable elegance, dry
0:26
aged steaks, fresh seafood and award-winning wines.
0:30
They create extraordinary dining experiences by focusing on
0:34
exceptional ingredients and world class service.
0:38
Kim has been with The Capital Girls since April 2010 and
0:41
brings over 3 decades of experience and hospitality
0:44
leadership. She has held leadership roles in
0:47
notable restaurants, showcasing her strong background in
0:50
restaurant operations, team management, and customer
0:53
service. She actively supports local
0:56
families as a child advocate and has joined groups addressing
0:59
restaurant challenges during COVID-19.
1:02
Additionally, Kim is a board member of the MRA, working
1:05
closely with fellow hospitality leaders to enhance the dining
1:09
experience throughout her community.
1:11
Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
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1:54
All right, back to our guest today, managing partner of the
1:56
Capital Grill, Kim Halloran. Thanks for making the time to
1:59
Share your story today. Absolutely nice to finally meet
2:03
you. It's kind of in person.
2:05
Yeah, let's go. This is going to be fun today.
2:07
So how did you first get your start in the restaurant
2:10
industry? How old were you?
2:12
How did it unfold? So my first start I was I mean I
2:16
like to say I started when I was 5.
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I used to operate a menu out of the house and cook for my mom
2:24
and give my parents options. I kind of started then, but my
2:28
actual first paying job was at Sonic, so we had moved to the
2:34
Midwest, Kansas City's great get my first job and I'm at Sonic
2:42
2-3 nights a week. At that point.
2:44
I'm too young to work, you know, too late and a few weeks and
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they said, hey, you want to make ten extra bucks a shift and wear
2:52
roller skates. And at that point, $10 was king.
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So I was that girl cruising around on my roller skates,
2:59
delivering sodas around the around the curb.
3:03
And so from there, you were kind of hooked.
3:05
You just did. You stay consistently in
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restaurants and hospitality. I stayed in restaurants.
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I don't know if I knew that it was my path until closer to when
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I turned 21. I remember a very eye opening
3:21
moment. I had started waiting tables.
3:25
Gilbert Robinson is a huge local restaurant group and Bristol was
3:30
opening in Leawood and I had started working there as a
3:34
server and the partner there, the GM who the manager that was
3:39
running it was a female. And it was the first time I had
3:42
worked for a woman in in that capacity.
3:45
And she definitely motivated me and challenged me.
3:51
And about a year or two into that, she left to go open a
3:58
different restaurant. And I remember thinking to
4:01
myself, you know, this is what I love to do, why don't I do this?
4:05
And I left there to manage a small restaurant that was coming
4:09
to the city. They've since and closed and
4:13
moved on, but she was definitely who I looked up to and thought
4:18
she's a stand up person. She leads a great team.
4:21
I had never really thought of it.
4:23
And then I moved into it and it was at that restaurant that they
4:28
were building, the first Chipotle that was coming into
4:31
the area and we had some random ridiculous story.
4:36
I was in the dining room managing the floor and all of
4:39
leadership for Chipotle before they were public.
4:43
So this was the original crew were at that restaurant having
4:47
dinner and a mouse went running across the floor.
4:52
And Gretchen, who, you know, I later got to know very well,
4:56
made eyes with me. And I remember I was so
4:59
embarrassed. I thought, Oh my goodness, they
5:01
think that we are. And so I approached the table
5:05
and apologized profusely and I said, they're doing a lot of
5:08
building next door to us. I'm so sorry.
5:11
This never happens. It's never.
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And she laughed and said, well, that building is us.
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And you handled this so well. She said, you know, we want you
5:21
with us. You're great, but I understand
5:24
you have a job. But here's my card.
5:26
And if you ever change your mind, I love your energy.
5:29
And you know, we're opening dozens of restaurants in your
5:33
city and growing and all of the things you want to hear as a
5:37
young adult starting out in the industry.
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And I had made an alternate plan and decided to move shortly
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found out I was pregnant with our son.
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And so I called her and I said, I think I'm ready to make a
5:53
change, but I'm having a baby, so let me get through this first
5:58
stage. You know, I don't want to jump
6:00
in with two feet when I might have 1 1/2 for a few days.
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And she said, you can come now or you can come later.
6:08
We'll take you either way. And so we had our son.
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I waited a couple of months and I went and started working with
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them. And I opened multiple
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restaurants and, you know, kind of followed that career, which
6:22
quick service is completely different than full service.
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And I loved it. I learned so much with that
6:28
brand. And watching them evolve from a
6:30
small, you know, passionate, artsy, cool burrito shop to
6:36
something so grand was really cool.
6:39
That's really fascinating and hysterical that this job
6:43
opportunity came about because a little Mickey Mouse will call
6:47
him running across the floor and the way that you handled it, had
6:51
you had, were you the 1 interacting with them all
6:55
evening or was that your first interaction with them was coming
6:58
over to apologize for that mouse?
7:00
That was the first they were, they were only there probably 5
7:04
minutes. So I think the server had
7:05
stopped by to greet them, but I had not had any interaction.
7:09
And I mean thinking back, I think it was a group of seven or
7:12
8. So it was enough people that
7:15
they all noticed it was good. And you handled that short
7:19
interaction so well that they're like, hey, we want you part of
7:22
the team. And so when you became part of
7:24
the team, your role was what? And grew into what?
7:29
So I was a store manager and quickly, I think because of my
7:36
full service experience, I really kind of had my hands
7:40
around all of it. And I started doing restaurant
7:43
openings. I did multiple.
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I want 10 or 12 traveled around, you know, a day or two.
7:49
One good thing with them is they never some restaurants take you
7:53
away for months. They they would take you away
7:56
for days at a time. And so it made it really
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convenient for me at that point to still do all the things and
8:05
learn from them. So it was pretty awesome.
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Like you said, quick service is way different than full service.
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What is something key that you learned there at Chipotle that
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you're able to bring forward into the full service world, the
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capital girl today. I would say I look back at those
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days. I was so lucky to be there at
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the time I was. But the main thing I learned is
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how long does it take from when you walk in the front door until
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you leave? And was that time worth it,
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right. So throughput, right?
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That's kind of a quick service phrase and it really gets in
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your head when you look around. You don't ever lose that.
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The other thing that they did extremely well was cultivate
8:55
relationships. So their teams, I taught English
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classes, we did, you know, family meal together on
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Saturdays, which we do at Capital Grill every day.
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But then when I had started with them, I had never worked in a
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place that was so passionate about their employees.
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And that was really cool to have a different type of role with my
9:21
team. Besides a little bit more of a
9:24
here's what I need you to do. OK, great.
9:26
Thanks. High 5.
9:27
So it encouraged us to look at our team more like people.
9:33
And then how did that segue into an opportunity with Jake
9:37
Gilbert's? So when we had our second child,
9:42
about a year after, I said I think I want to get back into
9:46
full service and it's time. I had great relationships with
9:51
everybody. We had at that point gone public
9:54
with Chipotle. So they were already seeing a
9:57
lot of change. Some of the little things that I
10:00
really loved were starting to change.
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So it felt like the right time and it was OK for me to go.
10:05
And Jay Gilbert's is operated by the same company that I was with
10:11
prior with Bristol. It's their sister brand, their
10:15
steakhouse. So I went with them, you know,
10:18
met with the leaders we had before, got back in, and then I
10:22
was moved to Ohio. They had an opening for a
10:27
managing partner. They had lost someone due to a
10:30
lot of internal drama that was happening and they really felt
10:36
like me going there or specifically a female would be
10:41
helpful because they had an all male team and they were not
10:45
getting through to the team based on what had happened.
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So we went up there and on. It was a great a great time.
10:55
And I'll kind of read between the lines of maybe what unfolded
10:58
there and kind of leave that where it is.
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But you know, you were there for a little more than four years
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and then somehow the door opened for you to join The Capital
11:07
Grille and you've been there almost 16 years now.
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How did that opportunity come about?
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So if you go back in my story, I tell you about the leader that
11:18
opened my eyes to wanting to be a tremendous leader.
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She retired from Darden after 30 years in December.
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So when The Capital Grille was looking for a manager, a dining
11:31
room manager, my name had come up and I called Mary and it's
11:37
the company she worked for. And she said, I want you to look
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up the tree of leaders and not just the person you work for,
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but their boss and above them and so on.
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And those are the people that are going to impact you every
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day. So think about where you are and
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think about where you're going and art.
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Is that the direction that you feel suits you?
12:02
Are you putting your heart into something?
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And it was really powerful for me because that gave me the
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answer I needed, that I wanted to work for a company that was
12:13
looking for some of the things that we have here at Darden.
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And obviously the growth and change that we see is always
12:25
happening. But the people I work for and
12:28
the leaders above in multiple layers, I believe in.
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And I believe that they truly are focused on what I'm focused
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on. And that to me, at the end of
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the day, I have a saying in the restaurant that I will work as
12:44
hard for you as you will for me. And I need that commitment and
12:47
you need it too. And I feel that way from my
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leaders as well. Can you say more about what it
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is that you have there? You found what you were looking
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for there. What is?
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There I'm looking for a culture that employees can come to work
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and thrive, that it's fair, it's respectful restaurants there,
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there's a lot of personality, there's guests coming in,
13:17
there's people that we don't know, right.
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So we're kind of opening up the doors and taking what comes.
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So when you're surrounded by great people and you're given
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the opportunity to bring great people in, it gives you just a
13:34
different a different power, a different edge on what we do.
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Not everything is black and white in restaurants.
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There's some Gray and learning through leaders who have done it
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for decades. You know, the the director I had
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when I started this role was the original opening partner of this
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restaurant. So the people they stay in, the
14:02
culture is strong and it allows you to go a little bit farther
14:08
in, a little bit reach a little bit farther.
14:12
Even in the community, honestly, I think our guests are wine
14:16
locker holders. They have a relationship with us
14:19
that is special and people who haven't been here before, you
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know, they have an idea of what the picture is when they walk in
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the door that they're going to be taken care of.
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And for our team, they take great pride in it, just like I
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do. So for somebody who's never been
14:41
to a Capital Girl location, paint us a picture.
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What's the customer experience like?
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What's the menu like? So you walk in the front door,
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it's beautiful lights and colors.
14:55
You're greeted with a smile and really the feeling in the
14:58
restaurant is comfortable. It's definitely elegant.
15:04
It's a Country Club. You're coming in and everybody
15:08
knows each other and there's a little bit of a positive energy.
15:13
There's music in the background and you can sit in the lounge,
15:17
which is a little more casual and lively, especially on a
15:20
sports day or something. Kansas City's pretty active, but
15:25
in the dining room, it's calmer. You have background music, but
15:29
your server is going to really cater your dinner to what you
15:33
want. So some people want to come in,
15:35
have business and not a lot of interaction.
15:37
And some people come in and they want to know the menu story.
15:40
They want to know that our dry aged steaks are aged in house
15:45
and butchered every morning and hand carved and grilled to put
15:48
on their plate. Or that the pastry chef is here
15:52
before anybody baking the pastries fresh for the day.
15:56
So there's sides of it where you think, oh you just walk in the
16:02
door and it's all ready. But we get to tell the story.
16:05
When you come in, we can all stop by the table and tell you
16:09
happy birthday or happy anniversary or make it special.
16:13
But on the flip side, it's special for us.
16:16
We have a great time when we're celebrating with people.
16:19
It keeps it fun. So how many locations the
16:24
capital girl now? We're just, we're just over 70.
16:29
OK. And so you're managing partner
16:31
specifically at the Kansas City location, is that right?
16:34
I am, yes. Talk to me about the impact that
16:39
you think COVID has had on the business, maybe the larger
16:43
industry, and how you think it's kind of brought you back to your
16:46
roots in a way. For me in the city, I was lucky
16:52
enough to be on the board with the mayor when we were getting
16:55
restaurants reopened. And I got to hear so much
16:59
concern and so much excitement all at the same time, right?
17:04
There was just a lot of fear and a lot of our industry, in my
17:09
opinion, really had to make a decision.
17:13
Do they want to do this or do they not, right?
17:16
And so that crossroad was hard because so many industries did
17:20
not have to make that choice right away.
17:22
And we did. And I think that the employees
17:26
who were back and working hard and together safely really
17:33
pulled us together. It, I can't explain it in words,
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It was maybe more of a feeling, but just that team feeling and
17:42
that camaraderie that everybody had with each other was very
17:45
strong. And we came out of it a better
17:48
team. But we also brought a few people
17:52
in during that time that had left their cities.
17:55
One of our servers, he came from New York, and he's just an
18:00
incredible part of our team. He does restaurant openings.
18:03
He's somed by trade. He's such a wine lover and
18:08
advocate. But we would have never met him
18:11
had his city not completely shut down.
18:14
So there are. And there's another story of an
18:17
employee from Chicago, But it just created such a different
18:23
expectation and trust. On the flip side, they wanted to
18:26
trust us that we were going to protect them, right?
18:29
So that we weren't going to, you know, open the floodgates, that
18:34
we were going to listen to the direction and follow it and do
18:37
our best. But it just, it created a
18:40
different layer of trust between us.
18:43
Do you think it was just the fact that you all went through
18:46
something incredibly difficult together, sort of, you know,
18:51
like, almost like a, a retreat that like forces people into
18:54
these kinds of situations to stress them out and, and that
18:58
creates that that stronger bond. I think that that is part of it.
19:03
And I think the other part that was kind of weird at the time is
19:06
we were an essential worker and we very much felt that way that
19:11
we had an ability to provide something, you know, as stores
19:16
or other places were running out of food or whatever was
19:21
happening. You know, we were in this
19:23
category with nurses and police officers and in this important
19:29
field. Now we're not here saving lives
19:33
everyday. And I don't want to.
19:34
I just want to serve a great dinner and pick a nice bottle of
19:37
wine, help the team. But it also kept us in a really
19:43
relevant category. And I don't know if everybody
19:48
always under understood or felt that way, if that makes sense.
19:51
You know, there's always that feeling of, oh, you're in
19:54
restaurants, you know? Almost like it's that we don't
19:59
like that's extra. Like that's a nice to have, not
20:03
a must have. Sure.
20:05
And it became more real, I guess I would say.
20:09
I remember my mom saying to me one day, she said they're the
20:15
people are so lucky to have you and have you go and open and get
20:19
food, you know, because we were in here butchering steaks and
20:23
selling them from day one, even if it was just to go just to get
20:28
food, you know, out in the community.
20:30
And of course, it's a business, right?
20:32
But this is our city, and these are our people.
20:36
Yeah, you feel a sense of responsibility.
20:39
It's your community, their, your friends, your family, your
20:42
neighbors. Yeah.
20:44
You know, and you've, you, you talked about this before, but
20:46
you've had a a hand in launching a lot of new locations for
20:51
different restaurants you've been involved with.
20:53
What strategies do you think are really important for generating
20:58
excitement and success when you're opening a new location?
21:02
Or maybe just introducing a new menu at an at an existing
21:04
location? I think you have to have
21:07
diversity. I think that you have to reach
21:12
out to different people that are attracted to what you do for
21:17
different reasons, whether that's, you know, menu
21:21
diversity, team diversity. You're not going to include
21:27
people if they don't feel like they already have a seat at the
21:31
table. So seeking that out at the
21:34
front, I guess by that I mean employees.
21:37
I don't want everybody to be alike.
21:39
I want personalities and ideas and they're all relevant.
21:44
We may not all want to set the table the same way, right?
21:48
But everybody respects each other, and finding a group of
21:52
people that can come together or create a menu or put that to
21:58
life is awesome. But their buzz and their
22:03
excitement, it feeds into the guest.
22:06
Absolutely. I mean, we opened four
22:10
Chipotle's in a row back, I want to say in 2002 or three.
22:15
And each one I opened, we beat the last one.
22:19
And I think it's because we just kept getting better with our
22:22
team. And I remember our SVP, Matt
22:25
would walk in with exactly the coffee I liked and he, and he
22:30
was always so awesome at reminding me, you take care of
22:33
everyone else, I'm going to take care of you, right?
22:36
So it's just one of those things that you create that energy.
22:41
And you and I, we both know it. You walk into a business and you
22:45
see, you know, deflated, frustrated employees.
22:49
It's not exciting and not every day is rainbow and sun shines,
22:53
but we all want to enjoy what we do.
22:56
We want to have fun when we're here.
22:57
Leave it at the door. You know, there's cool people
23:01
coming in here with great stories that we don't know yet,
23:04
so find them out. So what's so interesting about
23:07
your answer there, Kim, is I was expecting some talk about the
23:13
marketing aspect. Here's how we promote it.
23:16
Here's how we get the word out. We run these ads here, we do
23:19
this community event there. And I wonder maybe that's just
23:24
sort of not traditionally been your role or maybe it has been
23:27
part of your responsibility. But it's even more telling that
23:31
you focus about You focused your answer on what's going on inside
23:34
the four walls, how it is that you're building, motivating that
23:38
team, taking care of them, getting them excited, getting
23:41
them the tools that they need to be successful.
23:44
Our team as a whole does marketing and outreach and
23:49
without them, I'm just one person.
23:52
My salesperson is one person. With my service team, you know,
23:57
we're we're 60 that that's there's a lot in that and they
24:02
have to share that excitement. They have to want that with you.
24:07
You know, it's it's like watching the same ad over and
24:10
over and you think to yourself, I've never used that company.
24:13
Well, if 20 people are talking about it in different ways or
24:18
through word of mouth or on a post Oregon various ways, it's
24:23
going to create a little bit more excitement like you know
24:25
what they had a great time. They can't stop talking about
24:28
it, but that is going to motivate you to go more than you
24:32
seeing something on paper. I think that I think that
24:36
getting information out on events or you know, things that
24:42
matter to your restaurant at that time are completely
24:44
relevant, but the team being excited about it, it's
24:48
completely different. Yeah, tell me what family meal
24:53
is in the context of your team and why it's so important to
24:57
you. So we do family meal every day
25:01
at the restaurant, so midday, right?
25:03
So you can stay after lunch or you can come in before your
25:07
dinner. And I just think it's a way to
25:10
nourish each other. We have a couple of guys.
25:14
Well, Martha does it one day a week.
25:16
But the guys, they really enjoy it and they actually will look
25:20
and see who's working. You know, these two people don't
25:23
eat pork. This person's vegetarian and
25:26
they take pride in it, and I think that it's just a nice way
25:31
to do something nice for the team.
25:35
And whether they come in, you know, and sit together or they
25:39
come in just to have something before the shift starts, I think
25:43
it's just a way to show that we're committed to them and that
25:47
the team wants to take care of each other honestly.
25:51
Which I'm going to guess spills over in exactly the way that you
25:54
guys treat your guests too, right?
25:56
Noticing with your regulars or you know, even somebody new
26:00
comes in just noticing something that's going on in that moment.
26:04
What can you do to sort of elevate their dining experience?
26:08
I, I'm sure that you have a long list of examples, could pull
26:13
maybe one or two of a way that you or your team were able to
26:18
really take somebody's dining experience and take it to
26:21
another level just by giving attention to some of those
26:24
details. I think that it's more than when
26:27
they're just with us. You know, there's a story of a
26:30
regular who comes in often and when he travels, he'll let me
26:35
know where he's going so I can make him a reservation.
26:41
And I do, but he's always greeted with a crushed ice
26:46
kettle one martini because that's what he drinks.
26:49
And it's just that it's the little things like that.
26:52
I can tell you big stories. I can tell you engagement
26:56
stories and photos. And team.
26:59
I have team members that will cut flowers out of their garden
27:03
to put on the table and make it special because they're regular.
27:07
You know, it's a new mom or they're coming in for a girl's
27:11
lunch. I mean, there's so many
27:13
incredible stories, but what blows me away every day is
27:18
sometimes it's the little things.
27:19
They really matter. And I think that in life in
27:23
general, we forget that sometimes.
27:26
So when we're here, it's nice. Yeah, the the small things do
27:29
mean a lot, but go ahead, give us one big example.
27:33
Because those are fun to hear too.
27:35
Well, we had a proposal and again, this was COVID time
27:40
frame. So it was after COVID and
27:43
everything had been pushed back. So, you know, there's this
27:47
defeated bride and the family and they really were trying to
27:53
make the most of it. I think everybody was and he had
27:57
really gone to every level and we worked with him.
28:02
We got a musician to come in and serenade her in the room so that
28:07
she could just have this out of world experience.
28:11
And I remember she just couldn't stop crying, right?
28:15
Because finally something was great.
28:17
But I remember all of us at the time were crying because we were
28:20
so excited for her. You know, she's young, all cried
28:23
talking about it, but she's young and this is the biggest
28:26
day of her life. And he found a way.
28:30
So he just started over. He proposed all over again.
28:33
He made it super special and they did their rehearsal dinner
28:37
here. They had a beautiful wedding.
28:39
They've been married now four years.
28:41
But it's cool because working with people to do something huge
28:48
to change their life, it, it sticks with you forever.
28:53
You know, they come in, they become part of the family.
28:55
Yeah, yeah. Chills from that story.
28:57
Thank you for sharing it. It's clear that mentorship is
29:01
really important to you. You had a a really great mentor
29:05
yourself coming up through the ranks.
29:08
How is it that you're able to deliver mentorship?
29:12
Can you maybe pull a specific example of the time that you've
29:15
mentored one of your team members and how you saw it have
29:19
a positive impact on them? I think that mentorship is what
29:24
it's all about. I truly do.
29:26
I think that if there isn't somebody to help you along the
29:29
way, even if it's for a period of time, that you need to find
29:35
somebody. So if you haven't found that
29:37
person and that person can change that.
29:39
You know, I talked about mine, I have others.
29:42
But I think for me, I can talk about people I've helped become
29:47
managers. I can talk about peers that are
29:49
partners that I've helped through positive and negative
29:53
situations. I can talk about relationships
29:56
with my bosses. But I'll tell you the most
29:59
important one was an hourly employee that worked for us
30:01
about 10 years ago, and she was really struggling in her
30:06
personal life. She was very kind and she was
30:10
going to school for her Master. She's very intelligent, but she
30:14
just could not hold it together. She couldn't.
30:17
And all of the managers, the team, everybody was just over
30:23
it. When are we going to get rid of
30:24
her? This has to stop.
30:26
And she would come in one day and everything was awesome.
30:30
And the next day it was a mess. And I remember telling my boss I
30:34
wasn't promoted yet, so I had to have been 13 years ago.
30:38
Let's go back further. And I said, I want her to be my
30:43
one-on-one until she gets better, and I'm going to work on
30:49
it every week. And I did.
30:51
And I met with her every week, and my only goal was for her to
30:55
make it. And she did.
30:58
And she turned that corner and she became incredible because
31:04
she already was. But nobody believed in her.
31:06
All she was hearing is what she was doing wrong, right?
31:10
And so shifting it and looking at her situation different than
31:14
everybody else made such a difference.
31:18
And to this day, when we see each other, we don't talk often.
31:22
She's thriving. She's got her master's degree,
31:25
she's a lawyer, she's very successful.
31:28
But her situation to me was really important because
31:33
somebody, she came here for a reason and we hired her for a
31:36
reason. We owed her the respect to try
31:39
to make that great, right? That that's how I felt.
31:42
And I think that sometimes it's just easy to dismiss people or
31:47
walk away. I think that sometimes we have
31:50
to lean into it. I have a manager right now.
31:54
I remember 2-3 years ago before she became a manager, talking
32:01
about her position. She was an hourly Hostess and
32:05
she was incredible. And she was about to embark on
32:10
buying a home by herself with her children, right?
32:14
So looking at this new life that was going to be real for her.
32:17
And I remember her looking at me saying, I need more skills, I
32:22
need to know how to do things. And I said, OK, then we're going
32:28
to do it all, top to bottom, every position until you
32:32
understand every role. And she did.
32:35
And she took it serious. She worked in the kitchen.
32:38
She did everything and she loves it, but she's a dining room
32:42
manager, she's passionate, she's caring.
32:45
But I felt like in that moment that was an honest conversation,
32:49
saying I'm walking in and doing great at the same thing every
32:52
day. I don't know what I don't know.
32:56
And I thought, I owe you that respect.
32:58
You've been here so long you've never wanted to, but you do
33:02
today. And because you do today, we're
33:04
going to do it right. And so I think that sometimes
33:08
the time's right and sometimes it's not.
33:10
And so when you can be a mentor, when it's important, it matters.
33:16
And not everybody wants to be mentored every bit every day.
33:19
They don't want a story every day.
33:20
They don't want you telling them, you know, all the reasons
33:23
they can do it. They might not want it that day.
33:26
So I want to go back to the woman that you made sort of your
33:30
mission, that I, hey, I want this to be my one-on-one every
33:33
week. What were you doing in those
33:36
weekly meetings with her to help her bridge from where she was to
33:41
where she ended up going? We started out by writing down
33:47
what she was doing well and what she wasn't.
33:50
The number one component that we had to get through was her
33:55
seeing what we saw. You know it.
33:57
It's like that story. I tell it all the time, but
34:02
I'll, I'll say it in summary. If you have a tail, right, if
34:06
someone says, hey, Anthony, you have a tail, you're going to be
34:10
like, no, I don't. My boss would always, Bart would
34:13
always tell me the story. But if you go upstairs and your
34:17
family tells you and then you leave the office and you're at
34:21
the coffee shop and everybody's looking at you, at some point
34:26
you have to realize you might have a tail and maybe you can't
34:29
see it, but everybody else does, right?
34:32
So there's just that reality of how do we bridge what we see and
34:38
what you see and how do we get on the same page?
34:41
And I think in our industry, we feel like in restaurants,
34:45
there's so much, you know, outside noise because we're
34:49
dealing with the general public that what they say or what we
34:53
see isn't always valid. It can be dismissed versus
34:57
that's valid feedback. Thank you.
35:00
I think that we're in this online social media world where
35:06
we are given so much information that we don't know what to
35:10
accept is reality or or just a story.
35:16
And so for her it was sitting down and saying what do we need
35:21
to do to do XYZ right? Don't make this bigger than
35:25
dinner. And we just focused on that.
35:29
We focused on what she needed to do here because outside of work
35:34
was mayhem and it was just spilling in, so we had to really
35:37
work on separating it. Sounds like there was at least a
35:42
fair bit of positive affirmations as well.
35:44
So not just raining down on the things that needed work on, but
35:49
hey, let's shine a light on some of the things that you're doing
35:51
well too, because everybody needs that competence boost when
35:54
they're going through something hard.
35:56
Well, and finding peers that could mentor her and she could
35:59
work with was really helpful. Also surrounding her by people
36:03
that were, you know, more pillars of the restaurant.
36:08
So scheduling her on shifts where we knew she would be
36:12
supported and just surrounding her with people a little more
36:16
intentionally or putting her on a large table with, you know, a
36:21
trainer or somebody who had more skill or ability at certain
36:25
things helped her a lot. Kim, tell us about the child
36:30
advocacy work that you do. So I, I think that years ago, I
36:37
realized that we all have the ability to impact our community
36:42
and through lots of life, right, you learned that sometimes you
36:47
need somebody there to say, hey, this is what this child's trying
36:53
to say, this is what they need. And I started Casa work and I
37:00
remember even my husband went to my graduation.
37:03
Sorry, what is Casa work? So Casa is court appointed,
37:09
court appointed special advocate.
37:11
So it's a liaison between a child that's been taken from
37:17
their home for abuse or neglect and the court.
37:22
So it's the person that meets with the child and make sure
37:27
they have, you know, dental, books, clothes, that anything
37:32
they need because they don't have parents at that time.
37:37
And it was just, I don't know, it pulled to me because of life
37:42
and people and what it was. But I felt like it's such a way
37:47
to help, especially a voiceless child in a big, you know,
37:52
courtroom who needs someone to say, I know that's what you're
37:56
thinking and that's what you're thinking, but here's what we are
37:59
thinking. And it was really impactful.
38:02
And honestly, I would say the social workers and the judges I
38:06
worked with showed me how important that role was.
38:11
I felt like I made a personal impact on each child.
38:17
How many children do you think you've worked with?
38:19
Any idea? So my first family was 2, the
38:24
second was 5, and then I had three others.
38:27
So there I would be a total of about 15.
38:31
OK, Is this work that you continue today or is this a
38:37
previous season of life? It's a previous season.
38:41
I'll definitely get back into it.
38:44
I left it when I had gotten promoted here and so I moved on
38:51
to doing some different things. But I've encouraged.
38:53
I probably have 5 or 6 friends that do it and I kind of stay
38:56
close to them as well as some of these girls that I met in the
39:02
past. So, you know, once they leave
39:04
the system, you have to remember, or at least I remember
39:08
that they don't. You know, their parent is the
39:12
judge and then they venture off and some of them are just alone.
39:16
It's just them. So some of them are mothers now
39:19
too, and some it's gone really great and some it has not.
39:23
But you know, just to have a person if they need to talk.
39:28
Well, it's really kind of you. Let's shift gears into talking
39:32
about a serious challenge, Kim, that you've overcome in your
39:35
life, whether it's personal or professional.
39:38
How did you get through it and what did you learn in that
39:41
process? You know, I, I look back and
39:48
there's always this one pivotal time in my life and, and maybe
39:52
it, This is why I did Casa work, but I'm very close with my
39:57
parents. And when I was young, my parents
39:59
divorced, and this was in the generation of divorce was not
40:05
extremely common. Little did we know it was going
40:08
to be, you know, everywhere. But we were kind of the first.
40:14
My mom comes from a big family. She was the youngest.
40:18
I was the youngest. And so here my stay at home mom
40:23
is with my dad, and they don't know what to do.
40:26
They've been together since high school.
40:28
They've had kids, you know, they're in their mid 20s.
40:31
And they made what I considered to be a huge mistake by asking
40:38
each of us where we wanted to go.
40:41
And so I went with my mom and my sister and brother went with my
40:45
dad. And it was just a horrible
40:48
decision. And I don't think, sorry mom,
40:52
when you listen to this, you already know.
40:54
But and dad too, I don't think they knew what they were doing
40:57
because nobody was giving them the advice.
41:00
Nobody was talking to the kids. They were so wrapped up and the
41:04
moment that nobody was kind of taking a step back.
41:08
But Fast forward years later, my parents remarried each other and
41:16
they have a great marriage. And you know, they, I don't know
41:21
what they would do without each other.
41:22
My dad has stage 4 cancer. She takes great care of him.
41:25
I mean, they, they're just great.
41:27
But they had to go through this hard time, right?
41:31
And we went through this hard time and I just have a very
41:35
strong feeling that everybody deserves a second chance.
41:40
You can come back from things, you can make it better, but you
41:45
have to have the tools to do it right.
41:47
You have to work hard towards it.
41:50
You have to mend relationships. And you know it.
41:55
It was a lot, but I look at everybody.
41:57
My team guest. And I think you don't know their
42:01
story. You don't know what they've been
42:03
through. You don't know, you know, if
42:07
they have a roof over their head or if they're bouncing from
42:11
apartment to apartment with a mom who's never worked and
42:14
you're sharing a bed or a couch at a friend's house.
42:17
You know you're just figuring out ways to survive, right?
42:22
But it also can teach you to thrive.
42:24
It can teach you a difference. Or to look in the mirror and
42:28
say, hey, I don't want that for myself.
42:32
So what can I do to impact others?
42:34
How can I help others have what they need to thrive, right?
42:40
You just need somebody to kind of point you in that direction.
42:44
And luckily I had some people who did.
42:46
I had some mentors and hopefully I can mentor others and not all
42:50
of them will be extreme or bad situations.
42:52
Maybe it's getting their master's degree or doing
42:56
something awesome. But sometimes you just need
42:59
somebody to say, hey, you left there because of this, but you
43:04
deserve a second chance. Let's focus on it.
43:07
Let's, you know, overcome it and be great.
43:12
Wow, that's quite a story. I appreciate you sharing that.
43:15
Kim, I'm curious, as you were going through that, at what
43:19
point did your parents remarry each other?
43:21
How much longer down the road was that?
43:25
About 8 years, OK, it's pretty significant time.
43:30
So it, it's, it ended in elementary school, which I kind
43:34
of thought that, you know, we didn't have two pennies to rub
43:38
together. We were, you know, getting a
43:40
Christmas tree donated from the neighbor, right?
43:43
So there was hard times, but then they got back together,
43:49
middle school, high school. So a lot of important years had
43:53
happened. A lot of your formative years
43:56
you were going through a lot of missing your dad, missing your
44:00
siblings, struggling financially.
44:04
And it sounds like it it puts you in this mindset of being
44:06
able to understand and appreciate hard times other
44:09
people are going through. And and you put it really well,
44:14
you know, and you don't always know when somebody's going
44:16
through a hard thing, right? You've got a lot of Co workers,
44:19
a lot of people showing up. Maybe they're showing up late,
44:22
maybe they're showing up in a bad mood.
44:23
You don't know what it is that they were walking through that
44:27
day. You don't know what's going on
44:30
in their life. And you know, by giving them
44:32
some grace and support, I think you know, probably a lot of
44:36
people who look back at their time working with you and you
44:39
know, with gratitude because of the the kind way in which you
44:43
approach them. And I think you have to be
44:46
careful with it. I think you have to be honest
44:50
with the conversation of here's the expectation, right?
44:54
We still have a business, but you're still a human being.
44:57
And we can't forget that when we deal with people, that we're
45:01
dealing with people. Do you ever find yourself
45:06
getting involved or wanting to get involved with the struggles
45:10
that are going on outside of the restaurant?
45:13
Somebody has a particular situation in their home life
45:16
that you know, it is hard to hear about, but is that
45:21
something where you feel like it's stepping over the lines to
45:24
to help there? You kind of keep to your domain
45:27
inside the four walls. I am very resourceful, right?
45:32
And I think that honestly, being a part of the Missouri
45:35
Restaurant Association or the Kansas City Association, I've
45:39
learned, yes, of course I want to help and I want to give
45:43
resources. As a company, we have something
45:46
called Days, which is Darden at your service.
45:49
And it's a book of resources for our team, whether bankruptcy,
45:57
divorce, depression, text, phone calls.
46:00
And luckily for me, we have that in place so that I don't have to
46:05
get too personally. Of course my team is going to
46:08
call me at 11:00 at night in tears because something's going
46:12
on and they trust me and they are.
46:15
I'm the first person they thought of to call.
46:17
Yes, I'm going to take that call.
46:19
But I feel grateful that I can help them find the tools they
46:24
need. And sometimes it's the opposite.
46:27
They don't want me to know because they respect me so much
46:31
or they see, you know, how hard we're all working and they feel
46:35
like that's a distraction of a feel bad.
46:38
And so sometimes having those tools helps to say, hey, team,
46:44
maybe you don't want to call me and maybe you don't want to talk
46:46
today. But here's all these things, you
46:50
know, and we celebrate together, right?
46:54
Weddings, babies, all of that. But some when you're going
46:59
through something hard, you have to have a way to get it off your
47:04
chest. There's no there's nobody
47:06
listening to this or in this restaurant or eating here that
47:11
doesn't have something going on that we can't see, you know, and
47:15
I feel that way with guests. You know, an employee might say,
47:18
oh, this table Kim, what is going on?
47:21
I said, we don't know. They may have put their dog down
47:24
today. They made like, let's give them
47:26
the benefit. Let's start service.
47:29
Let's get some food in their belly.
47:31
Let's give them a toast. Let's see what they need.
47:34
And it's interesting to see it shift right to watch them kind
47:38
of release that stress over time because people walk in here
47:43
with, you know, burdens, business acquisitions, you know,
47:47
important things. You know, you hit on something
47:50
important there that when you're going through something hard,
47:52
you need a way to get it off your chest, right?
47:54
You need somebody that you trust that you can open up to and get
47:58
support from. When you were going through that
48:00
really hard time of your parents splitting up, You know, your mom
48:04
is obviously, you know, having her own hurt and pain and trying
48:08
to navigate to where, where did you go for support?
48:10
Who was there for you during that difficult time?
48:15
Really nobody, not a lot of people.
48:17
So my dad's mom, who was kind of our pillar, had passed.
48:21
And I think that's when everything fell apart.
48:24
But I do think that's why I became who I was.
48:27
I became that middle person in so much of life of saying, OK,
48:33
there has to be somebody looking at things rational because if
48:37
it's not all this big, you know, and there was definitely people
48:41
along the road who kind of leaned in.
48:45
But I'll tell you, the people who pulled me out of not knowing
48:50
what to do are the mentors I still have that said, hey, you
48:55
can do this, you can do this, you can do that.
48:58
And, and I don't think I thought of that, right, because I was so
49:03
busy figuring out life. My husband and I bought our
49:07
first house when we were 18. When I started working when I
49:11
was 14, I just wanted a home. I wanted somewhere to go to say
49:15
that was my home, right? That's it.
49:17
That's all I wanted. So if that meant 2 jobs, three
49:20
jobs, whatever I had to do, I was going to have a home and
49:23
that was going to be it, right? So you think about those days
49:28
and how important it was, but then you needed people there to
49:31
say, OK, you're, you've been doing this.
49:34
Have you thought about that? Because I hadn't, I had not
49:38
thought about those things. I just knew I had to work and I
49:42
know I wanted to work with great people, right?
49:44
Like who I was as in my core stayed the same but I was lucky
49:49
to find people to pull pieces out which was which was awesome.
49:54
What's your superpower, Kim? Oh well, I I'm calm.
50:01
I just think that I don't know if it's the empathy I have for
50:07
people, you know, that I can feel highs and lows so much, but
50:12
I just don't let things impact me greatly.
50:17
I just don't think that it's rational, you know, I think that
50:20
we're going to go through good, we're going to go through bad.
50:23
You're allowed to feel and and I let those around me do that.
50:28
But at the end of the day, I just think that giving back is
50:35
who you are, what you give back to your community and the people
50:39
around you or having, you know, safety.
50:42
You can work for me and have a great job or you can come to my
50:46
house, you know, if you're my neighbor's kids and have
50:48
breakfast, you're always safe. You know, it's always going to
50:52
be calm. I'm always going to earn your
50:56
trust based on what I believe, right?
50:59
So there's I think something to be said for that when you're
51:04
just appreciative every day of who you're surrounded by.
51:09
I mean, I think it's part being humble but also realizing
51:14
sometimes people just need consistency and safety and
51:20
structure. Now there's a lot of.
51:24
And a nice steak, you know? But it all, it sounds silly, but
51:30
it's true. I mean, it's just fun.
51:33
Comfort food at its best. Huh.
51:34
Yeah, I love to cook. Yeah, I love.
51:37
And I pretty much only cook comfort food, so maybe that
51:41
that's it. Kim, I've just got one more
51:44
question for you, but before I ask it, I want to do a few
51:46
things. Anyone who wants to get in touch
51:49
with Kim directly, you can find her on LinkedIn.
51:51
It's Kim Halloran. HA Double LORAN, search for Kim
51:57
Halloran and the Capital grill. Grill has an E on the end of it,
52:00
folks. We'll have links in the show
52:02
notes, but in case you're listening and you can also find
52:05
the brand at www.thatthecapitalgrill.com.
52:09
Again, grill with an E on the on the end of it, the Capital
52:12
grill.com. And as a reminder, if you want
52:15
to get more employees access to benefits that won't hurt them
52:18
financially and carries a financial upside for your
52:21
company, reach out to add back benefits.com.
52:24
Finally, if you take just a moment to leave us a comment or
52:27
review on your favorite podcast app, we will be forever
52:30
grateful. So last question for you, Kim,
52:33
as we look to the future, a year from now, you and I reconnect
52:38
and you are celebrating something big.
52:40
What's that big thing you hope to be celebrating one year from
52:43
today? Well, a year from today, I'll be
52:49
state president for the Missouri Restaurant Association, so I'll
52:52
have a chance to give back to this great industry that's given
52:55
me so much and I'm so appreciative.
52:59
I love, I love using my free time to give back to students
53:05
and managers and peers alike. But I also hope to have people
53:12
working under me that are building new lives for
53:15
themselves, setting up goals and becoming restaurant managers and
53:20
growing their career, as well as the managers that we have,
53:25
helping them to become managing partners and run their own
53:28
restaurants and, you know, plan for their next steps.
53:32
I think that opportunity is incredible in anything that
53:38
we're doing. So that's what I hope that
53:41
everybody's moved forward, including myself.
53:44
Kim Halloran from The Capital Grille.
53:47
I'm going to be the first to thank you for sharing both your
53:49
time and your story with us today.
53:50
I really appreciate it. It was great.
53:53
I appreciate you very much and it was nice to see you, see you
53:57
on the screen. But anytime you're in Kansas
54:00
City, I'd love to have you in. I appreciate that.
54:02
I'm going to put that on my bucket list, folks.
54:05
That's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
54:08
Thanks for learning with us today.